A moat is a deep, broad ditch, usually filled with water, dug around a castle, manor house, farmstead or garden enclosure. Originally a defensive feature intended to deter attackers and wild animals, it became over time a mark of status and a picturesque element of the historic landscape.
England has several thousand recorded moated sites, the majority created between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries around manor houses and farmsteads, where a moat offered security, drainage, a supply of fish and a clear statement of lordly standing. Famous survivors include houses such as Ightham Mote in Kent, Baddesley Clinton in Warwickshire and Oxburgh Hall in Norfolk, where water still laps at the walls of the house. Later builders occasionally retained or extended medieval moats as ornamental water, and Victorian and Edwardian architects sometimes included moats or moat-like canals in romantic revival schemes. Garden designers of the Arts and Crafts era also valued surviving moats for their reflections and sense of enclosure. For the owners of historic houses, moats require careful management of water levels, banks and bridges, and they can be important archaeological sites protected by law.
